Much better!

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It's been a long time since I really noticed the difference of my weight loss. I noticed profound differences after 30, 50, 80, 100+ lbs, but I haven't noticed much of a difference in a while. Obviously, everything is completely different from where I was this time last year, but I get used to it. I noticed two differences today, however.

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While I was cleaning out the garage, I decided to move our bicycles to the shed, but I took mine out for a quick spin. I only went a mile because my knee is still a bit funky, but I noticed that I didn't have as much trouble breathing going up the hills as I did a few months ago. I haven't been on my bike in a while, and I still have asthma and allergies, but every bit I drop will help relieve some of the strain on my lungs. I never rode without my inhaler before, and I would use it at least one time going up each hill, but I didn't need to this time!

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The second thing I noticed was more of a "wow" difference compared to when I was at my heaviest. I was never a lazy person, although when I was as fat as I had become, it was sometimes hard to even move or stand. Everyone hurts their back or neck or knees at some point in life, but if you have extra weight, it amplifies the injuries tremendously. My back was useless, and I couldn't do projects around the house in a timely fashion, as much as I tried.

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I would give myself aggressive deadlines to finish household projects, and I could never meet them. I kept forgetting how difficult it was for me to move and be on my feet constantly. Now, I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum. As you could probably see in the before picture of the garage this morning, it was a giant mess. You couldn't walk through it at all, and you couldn't even really step foot into it without climbing over things. It was going to be a major project, and I was working on it alone, so I was hoping I could finish it today, but I was fully prepared to have to finish it another day. After all, I was sorting through everything, and reorganizing tons of stuff. It wasn't just moving a few things around and throwing a few things out.

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All in all it took me about 5 hours of straight lifting, moving, packing, etc, minus my very quick bike ride and a drive to the store to pick up some stuff to label my bins. I was on my feet the whole time, and moving quite quickly. I put my iPod on and grooved to the tunes while I organized. I am very impressed with myself for doing that all in a number of hours, when it would have been a 2 full day project for me last year. It is a great feeling to know that household projects are not as daunting as they were in the past, and that I can do a fairly decent sized project, and be done with the whole afternoon and night to spare!

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My body is tired and my feet are aching, so I'm not exactly the energizer bunny quite yet, but I did it. :) I'm going to relax for a while and have a little lunch. I will probably stop by Billy and Lanie's to say hi during the Pats game, and then I'll come back to get some work done.

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Now that the garage is done, and I have room to store more things in there (!!!, very exciting for me,), next weekend my project will be the guest bedroom. We have used this room as overflow storage, and there are a lot of things in there we can move to the garage. I'm looking forward to getting that done as well!

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It's nice to have my life back, even for the days when I use it to do chores.